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National Safe Motherhood Day :A look at major pregnancy risks for Indian women

The National Safe Motherhood day is observed on April 11 every year. National Safe Motherhood Day is an initiative of the White Ribbon Alliance. The national Safe motherhood Day means ensuring that all women have access to the information and services they need to go safely through pregnancy and childbirth. Maternal deaths are largely preventable and treatable.

It includes:

  • Education on safe motherhood
  • Prenatal care (care during pregnancy) and counseling with focus on high risk pregnancies
  • Promotion of maternal nutrition
  • Adequate delivery assistance in all cases
  • Provisions for obstetric emergencies including referral services for pregnancy, childbirth and abortion complications
  • Postnatal care (care after childbirth)

To reduce needless deaths in pregnancy and childbirth, WRA India is working with communities to demand their rights to Respectful Maternity Care (RMC) and ensuring health systems are equipped to be supportive of health workers to provide RMC as standard practice. 

India remains one of the most high-risk places in the world to give birth, accounting for almost 12% of total maternal deaths worldwide. Annually, over 35,000 women die in India of maternal causes, despite over 80% delivering in health facilities. Almost all these deaths are preventable, suggesting that quality of care needs attention at multiple levels. India has seen progress around maternal health in recent years but the rush to bring women to facilities has grown without investing enough on the experience they have once they are there.

Too much physically demanding work during pregnancy can contribute to problems with the pregnancy such as miscarriage, premature labor or underweight infants especially if a woman is not eating enough.

Women should therefore be encouraged to avoid heavy physical labor during pregnancy. If they cannot be given up completely, women should make sure they rest as much as possible between tasks.

A pregnant woman should also get as much rest as possible. She should lie down for an hour or so during the day, and sleep between six and ten hours every night.

Major pregnancy risks for Indian women.

  • Infection
  • Complications from delivery and unsafe abortions.
  • High blood pressure during pregnancy (pre-eclampsia and eclampsia)
  • Severe bleeding
  • Lack of information, danger signs and symptoms 
  • Obstructed labor 

 

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